Fighting the Cigarette Demons

I quit smoking cold turkey shortly after I found out I was pregnant with Nathan, and I promised myself and my son that for both of our sakes, I would never smoke another cigarette again. It’s not worth the risk to my health, and more importantly, it’s not worth the risk to Nathan’s health. Terrifying new studies have recently surfaced about Third Hand Smoke, which is an even more toxic and dangerous killer than the more well-known Second Hand Smoke.

Until recently, no one knew about the dangers of Third Hand Smoke.

Third Hand Smoke is considered especially deadly for infants and small children because their developing brain is uniquely susceptible to extremely low levels of toxins… and third-hand smoke is layers of toxins that have been deposited on furniture, toys, carpets, clothing, and hair by cigarette smoke, which the baby then ingests by touching or crawling on those surfaces.

Even hugging a baby with smoke-laden clothes could be as hazardous as smoking in the same room with the child. All the more reason for me to kick the habit… for good. The Surgeon General states that there is no risk-free level of tobacco exposure… There are 250 poisonous toxins found in cigarette smoke and even tiny levels of exposure are associated with diminished IQ. Nathan’s life is more important to me than those cigarettes will ever be, and I am proving it daily by sheer willpower.

I’m not going to lie, quitting smoking was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. Since I was pregnant when I decided to quit, I couldn’t take any stop smoking aids, and I had to deal with the physical and emotional withdrawals. Physically, it felt like ants were gnawing away at my muscles, having little picnic with razor sharp teeth. I had cold sweats, tremors, nausea, and felt like the withdrawals were wreaking havoc on my body.

Those symptoms lasted nearly a week.

Emotionally, I thought about smoking a cigarette every 2.35 seconds… the urge to give up and give in was overwhelming. It consumed every waking thought. Paul was a wonderful and essential support person for me; if it weren’t for him, I don’t know if I could have beat it…

It was a war of pure will power. I won.

For more information about Third Hand Smoke, here’s some additional links:

This entry was posted by Jen on September 5, 2009 at 2:48 pm, and is filed under In the News, Jen and Paul. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.